There is always an internal debate over how much political news belongs in this sports section. Such reports and commentary fill the rest of the newspaper and website. And cable news. And our personal Twitter and Facebook feeds. (Man, that high school friend went off the deep end.)
Can’t we have one oasis where we can argue about only the important stuff, such as whether the New York Jets will win a game (yes, but not two), or who is going to take the Travers (no idea; ask Mike MacAdam or Bill Heller)?
But there is no denying politics, partisan and otherwise, crosses into the sports realm, from the ongoing Colin Kaepernick saga and Kevin Durant saying he would not go to the White House if invited to the issue of pay inequality in women’s sports.
Some of these topics are profound, transcending the day-to-day games, and should be discussed. They say something not just about sports, but where we are as a society.
And some are just … stupid.
But they provide fuel to our rage machine, our desire to yell and be outraged and shake our heads.
So Robert Lee, best known locally for his standout work doing play-by-play for Siena basketball, was switched off calling a Virginia football game by ESPN because he shares the name with Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general.
All this stems from the the heightened sensitivities to all things Confederate in the wake of the unrest earlier this month in Charlottesville, the home of UVA, involving white nationalists.
“We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding, simply because of the coincidence of his name,” ESPN said in a statement. “In that moment it felt right to all parties. It’s a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play-by-play for a football game has become an issue.”
In an email to writer Yashar Ali that the contributing writer to New York Magazine, Mother Jones and HuffPost posted on Twitter, an unnamed ESPN exec said the move was done to avoid “memes and jokes and who knows what else” and a “potential zoo.”
What ESPN got instead was … that potential zoo realized, and one of the top-trending topics on Twitter.
Rage, snark, head-shaking — it’s all there.
And what Lee — who, by the way, has a hardly unusual name for an Asian-American — suddenly found himself in the middle of our national nervous breakdown.
Lee did not respond to a request for comment. He did not ask for this. He does not deserve this.
You can argue — as many have — that ESPN was being overly cautious if not politically correct. But the truth is the PR people were right in one sense: Lee, who in a nod to his name goes locally by the nickname “The General,” certainly would have been the subject to at least some Twitter snark.
And … who isn’t?
Instead, ESPN made a move to pull him off this game, a move that inevitably got leaked … which put Lee in the spotlight by a factor of 10. …
ESPN, as always, is low-hanging fruit here. If it did nothing and Lee did a Virginia game in Charlottesville, certainly some would have hit the network as insensitive. At best, the easy jokes would have flown.
And by doing something, ESPN looks worse.
But you know who looks worst of all? All of us. The fact this conversation is even going on. The fact that an Asian sportscaster with the same name as a Confederate general is prompting all this angst, this rage and snark, this column. The fact everything has to be looked at now through the political and partisan lens. This story really does say something about where we are as a society.
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No comments on The dumbest controversy of all time
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There is a silent movement happening all over the country. It largely goes unnoticed because of its simplicity, but it has a dedicated following. The movement? Backing your car in.
It may sound simple, but backing your car can say a lot about the person who drives it.
Ever since I was sixteen, I’ve backed my car in because that’s what all the “car guys” at school did. But in parking this way for years, I’ve learned that it’s not just cars guys who should back in—leaders should back in. Why? Leaders are called to vigorously plan, do what is best for others, and be confident in themselves—actions that are taken when backing your vehicle in.
By backing your car in, as a leader you will learn how to…
Plan for the Unknown
When I finally find a spot in a busy parking lot (bonus points if it’s close to the entrance), I pass it first to see if the spot is clear of pedestrians and shopping carts. I can then back into a known situation. When it’s time to leave, I can fully see my surroundings and safely pull out instead of backing into unknown traffic. Choosing to back in (planning) alleviates risk of a collision (failure).
Whether it’s parking or leading others, the best leaders understand the importance of planning. The first three habits in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey describe planning:
1. Be Proactive (Don’t wait to react to problems, but be proactive in planning ahead to avoid them)
2. Begin with the End in Mind (Envision your future and make everything you do revolve around getting you there)
3. Put First Things First (Know each task’s importance and urgency, and spend your time only on the highest priority tasks)
Planning keeps everyone working towards the same goal, alleviates misunderstandings, and maximizes efficiency. By backing in, leaders have successfully planned for an unknown future parking lot situation.
Provide Safety for Self and Others
In the Midwest winters after WWII, the wisest drivers would back in. If the battery died in the sub-zero temperatures, it was safer and easier to jump the car with the engine facing the street.
But cold weather isn’t the only prime time to back in. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that accidents involving cars backing into traffic, known as a backover collisions, account for an estimated 18,000 injuries and 292 fatalities annually. This happens backing out of both parking spaces and driveways.
When driving a vehicle, you are charged with the safety of others in and around your vehicle. When leading a team, you are charged with the safety of those in, and impacted by, your team.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs states that basic human needs must be met before being able to focus on higher needs. One basic need is safety. If the people we lead do not feel safe, we cannot expect them to perform. We must make sure that our team feels safe in all aspects of life: physically, mentally, financially, socially, and spiritually. For example, discussing personnel issues in a private environment provides safety from embarrassment, while praising team members publicly provides job security.
Backing in keeps you and everyone around you safer—an action every leader should take.
Grow in Self-Confidence
When I catch a ride with a friend, I’ll sometimes give them a hard time when they park head-in. The common response is that backing in is too difficult. The ironic part? It is often more difficult to back out of a space safely than it is to back in. Most people simply lack self-confidence, but their driving abilities fully enable them to back in.
If we can’t lead ourselves, how can we be expected to lead others?
What if we decided to have confidence in our abilities?
To become more self-confident, I say “we will” not “we will try to,” practice being comfortable with the uncomfortable, come prepared, and do what I say I’m going to do. If all else fails, I fake it ‘till I make it.
Having confidence in your ability to lead (park) will give you the ability to overcome adversity (back in).
The Bottom Line: Intentionally backing your car in might sound trivial, but it showcases leadership. Backing in shows that you are a planner, put others before self, and are confident in yourself.
This is also the sort of thing firefighters and EMTs, or prospective firefighters and EMTs, do.
Of course, there’s always a cynic in every crowd, shown in this Facebook comment:
“…(bonus points if it’s close to the entrance)…” ~ why? Because “leaders” are lazy SOBs? You wanna be a leader, park farther away and walk. Set a better example than the clowns who spend 5 minutes driving around, looking for a spot 50 feet closer than all the empties farther out. Also, by doing that, you don’t have to mess around with backing in or out and delaying the cars around you. You can pull through 2 spots and already be in position to just pull straight out.
Now THAT’S leadership and planning.
… and someone who may or may not be kidding:
I back in for one reason: so that I can make a fast get-away (just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean that people aren’t really after me)
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U.S. Rep. Markwayne Millin (R–Oklahoma):
The conversation happening in our nation in light of recent events is more about political correctness than the issue at hand. Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and terrorists are bad people. The ideals of these groups are in opposition to everything our nation stands for and everything that holds true to our founding principles. Their hatred of people dissimilar to them is un-American and it should not be tolerated under any circumstances.
Days ago, my colleague in the Senate, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, announced that he plans to introduce legislation that would remove all of the statues in the U.S. Capitol that honored Confederate soldiers. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has also called for the elimination of such statues. I respect their rights as elected officials to put forth legislation they believe is in the best interest of their constituents, however I simply do not agree.
As a Cherokee, I can attest to the fact that Native Americans have been on the losing side of history. Our rights have been infringed upon, our treaties have been broken, our culture has been stolen, and our tribes have been decimated at the hands of our own United States government. Native Americans have faced centuries of atrocities to their people, their land, and their culture – all under various presidents who took an oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Under President Andrew Jackson in 1830, our government passed the Indian Removal Act that drove thousands of Native Americans out of their homes on the treacherous journey better known as the Trail of Tears. Under President Franklin Pierce in 1854, parts of Indian Territory were stolen from tribes to create the Kansas and Nebraska Territories. Under President Abraham Lincoln, the Sand Creek massacre occurred in 1864 when the U.S. Army attacked the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes unprovoked, killing about 250 Native Americans. The Dawes Act of 1887 gave President Grover Cleveland the power to take back tribal land and redistribute the land to native people as individuals, not as tribal members. Under President Benjamin Harrison in 1890, the Wounded Knee massacre took the lives of 150 Native Americans. Under President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907, Indian and Oklahoma territories were unified to create the state of Oklahoma after Congress refused to consider a petition to make Indian Territory a separate state. President Roosevelt is even quoted as saying: “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every 10 are.”
Let me ask you this: Is history not an opportunity to learn from one’s mistakes? When we fall short of the high standard we set for our nation and its citizens, we make mistakes. What’s most important is that our nation remembers and learns from them. As soon as we forget about our history, we are bound to repeat the same errors.
Still, we have professional athletes like Colin Kaepernick who refuse to stand during the national anthem and others who stand in solidarity with him in protest of the United States. To what end? To protest this country, a country that I love and my friends have died to defend? As an American, you have the right to protest me, or another individual, or a group, but I believe that protesting the United States for the mistakes it has made – when it gave you the freedom to do so in the first place – is disrespectful. Any attempt to coerce the United States into erasing our history is disingenuous. Especially, when our country has learned from the mistakes it has made and is determined not to repeat them.
Should we erase our history in the name of being politically correct? Can we not all agree that it is what shaped our country to be the great nation it is today? One that we know to be full of freedoms, liberties, and rights that other nations only dream of?
The removal of Confederate statues in the U.S. Capitol doesn’t change our history. The removal of these statues merely attempts to disguise our ugly scars by hiding these statues out of plain sight. In an imperfect world, full of imperfect leaders, there are countless statues that may not live up to our American values. The statues of President Jackson and President Lincoln, both fervent oppressors of Native Americans, stand tall in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Still, these statues tell the history of the good and the bad of our nation.
America is – and will always be – a success story. We have African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, and members of other ethnic groups elected to positions inside our governments. The American free enterprise system is the greatest tool to lift people out of poverty ever created in human history and when applied properly, does not discriminate by race, religion, or skin color. When we censor our history by disguising our scars, we belittle this process and the struggles our ancestors fought so hard to overcome. America doesn’t cower behind political correctness. It defiantly and courageously moves forward, with its history as a reminder of where we have been. Let us look boldly into our history and learn the lessons that made us the “shining city on the hill” and the example for all other peoples.
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Today in 1964, the Supremes reached number one by wondering …
Today in 1968, the Beatles briefly broke up when Ringo Starr quit during recording of their “White Album.” Starr rejoined the group Sept. 3, but in the meantime the remaining trio recorded “Back in the USSR” with Paul McCartney on drums and John Lennon on bass:
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This being the day of the solar eclipse …
… and general stupidity of opinions …
… here are two that — warning! — could reduce your IQ by reading them.
The Daily Caller read The Atlantic so you didn’t have to:
The Atlantic, a once-great magazine, has determined that the total eclipse of the sun due to occur on Monday will fail to affect enough black people.
The Atlantic’s very lengthy essay on the failure of the eclipse to occur where a sufficient number of black people reside is entitled “American Blackout.” It clocks in at a remarkable 4,544 words and does not appear to be satire.
Concerning “the Great American Eclipse,” Brooklyn Law School professor Alice Ristroph writes in the rapidly deteriorating magazine, “there live almost no black people” “along most of its path.”
The Atlantic’s longwinded law professor assures readers that “implicit bias of the solar system” is “presumably” not the cause of eclipse’s failure to affect enough black people.
“Still, an eclipse chaser is always tempted to believe that the skies are relaying a message.”
Oregon, where the eclipse will first appear in the continental United States, “is almost entirely white.” “There are very few black Oregonians, and this is not an accident.” It’s totally on purpose in 2017, The Atlantic claims, because the Pacific Northwest state had a “racial exclusion” clause in its original 1857 constitution.
The Atlantic notes that the eclipse will then move toward Wyoming and Idaho, which also have very low populations of black people. …
After an extensive discourse criticizing the U.S. Census, The Atlantic tells readers that the eclipse will travel through Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri. In this section of its essay, The Atlantic manages to drop the names of Bruce Springsteen, Jesse James, Eminem, Chelsea Manning, Michael Brown and Howard Zinn (a shallow socialist writer panned even by most serious socialists).
“There are too many damn facts,” The Atlantic also complains.
After considerable whining about the Electoral College and the way Congress is organized, The Atlantic moves on to southern Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee. There’s substantial discussion of the Ku Klux Klan in this section — and, of course, slavery. …
Here, The Atlantic criticizes Abraham Lincoln for being too cautious with the Emancipation Proclamation.
Next, The Atlantic traces the path of the eclipse to “overwhelmingly white rural areas” in the Deep South. There’s much discussion of the Civil War and much talk about “the glib view” America’s commoners have concerning Civil War history. Dylann Roof, who murdered nine people in the name of white supremacy, rates a mention.
In its final paragraph, The Atlantic concludes that the United States is “still segregated” and has “debts that no honest man can pay.” Cryptically, the magazine suggests, “the strange path of the eclipse suggests a need for reorganization” of the entire American political system.
The Atlantic classifies its article about the path of the eclipse in the category of “science” even though nothing remotely approaching science appears in any of the 4,544 words.
Interestingly, in trying to read this, the piece failed to load on two different browsers, as if The Atlantic is blocking people from reading this idiocy.
Next, GQ, even though I’ve warned you before you should never read GQ for anything but fashion advice (bad though it sometimes is):
A weekend that exposed the seams and rot of American life in so many other ways revealed this, too: That the work of white supremacy is no longer performed by cloak-and-dagger vigilantes. It’s done in broad daylight. And it’s done by people (mostly young, white men) wearing the most all-American clothes they can imagine: polos and khakis. The uniform of white hate is now average, mundane, the stuff of everyday American life. It is haunting. …
George Mitchell writes about this memorial you will no longer find in Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison:
Surely it’s time for Madison to cease honoring slaveowners.
That thought comes to mind on reading in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Madison Mayor Paul Soglin has ordered the removal of a memorial to confederate soldiers at a city-owned cemetery.
As the mayor boldly stated, “There should be no place in our country for bigotry, hatred, or violence against those who seek to unite our communities and our country.” And, in case anyone would be foolish to think otherwise, he added, ”There is no disrespect to the dead with the removal of the plaque and stone.”
Moving right along, when will East and West Washington Avenue be renamed? And then there’s Thomas Jefferson Middle School on the city’s west side.
As well as Monroe Street, Jackson Street (probably named for Andrew and not Jesse), Van Buren Street, Harrison Street (assuming it was named for William Henry and not Benjamin), Tyler Circle, Taylor Street, Johnson Street (whether named for Andrew or Lyndon) and Grant Street.
As historian Stephen Ambrose has written, “Jefferson owned slaves. He did not believe that all were created equal. He was a racist, incapable of rising above the thought of his time and place, and willing to profit from slave labor.” Washington, too, was a slaveholder (he eventually freed them).
More broadly, the nation’s founding fathers simply looked the other way when it came to incorporating women’s rights into the original Constitution. How can there be any “place in our country” where they are honored?
Soglin’s posturing, of course, is nothing but a self-absorbed grasp for attention. It’s the kind of virtue-signaling that increasingly has public figures groveling to demonstrate their sanctity. For the likes of Soglin, the Charlottesville story won’t be fully told until they declare, “Look. Over here. At me.”
Below is the wording of the hateful, bigoted, racist memorial that Soglin has ordered removed. And not a minute too soon.
The valiant Confederate soldiers who lie buried here were members of the 1st Alabama Inf. Reg., Confederate States of America. They were captured in the spring of 1862 in the Civil War Battle of Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River south of Cairo, Illinois. Their task was to stop traffic carrying men and supplies to Northern forces further south.
After weeks of fighting under extremely difficult conditions, they were forced to surrender. Constant fire from river gunboats and land forces made their position untenable. After surrender, they were moved to Camp Randall and when they arrived many were suffering from wounds, malnutrition and various diseases.
Within a few weeks 140 graves were filled, the last resting places for these unsung heroes, far from their homes in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas.
Here, also, is the grave of Alice Whiting Waterman, a gracious Southern lady who devoted more than 30 years of her life caring for the graves of “her boys.”
The history of racism in Soglin’s Democratic Party is, as someone puts it, an inconvenient truth. Jackson was a particularly virulent racist. So was Woodrow Wilson (for whom downtown Madison’s Wilson Street was named).Post-Civil War Jim Crow laws were enacted by Democrats, not Republicans. Franklin Roosevelt was so farsighted on racial issues that he interned thousands of Japanese–Americans during World War II just because they were easier to determine than Americans of German or Italian descent. Harry Truman desegregated the military, yet referred to blacks as, well, that N word. Lyndon Johnson famously said upon passage of the Civil Rights Act that “I’ll have those [there’s that word again] voting Democratic for 200 years.” And that list doesn’t include various liberal heroes from the Progressive Era such as Margaret Sanger, who believed in birth control to purify the white race.
This quote is from the friend of a Facebook Friend:
For all the people of African descent, are we not learning anything from the past. All of our history pre slavery was wiped out, censored, or beat out of our Ancestors. The good, the bad, and the ugly was denied us. Knowing how that has made us feel, or how it has shaped us, why would we want to do that now? I don’t want to memorialize racist historical people, but I certainly don’t want to have people not know they existed. There is a compromise. We should not have these statues memorized in a positive way on taxpayer buildings on the outside, but having them in museums as my sister Raydene suggested in another post. I want my kids, grandkids, their kids, and everyone to know ALL history good, bad, and ugly. EVERY country has parts that they are not proud of, that makes us all human. The klan, nazis, slavery, blm, and all hate groups are our blemish in history. Not something to be forgotten, but something to not be repeated. Calling the events of this past week, a alt-right thing, is EXACTLY why we can’t erase history. The orchestrators of these events want you to believe their history not true history. LEARN the truth people. Pick up a book, not a blog or meme.Even more ironic is Soglin’s calling the Civil War “an act of insurrection and treason.” Some might say that protesting a war in which your country’s soldiers are fighting and dying is also an act of treason, but you know that dissent is patriotic only when Republicans are in charge in Washington.
My counterpart on Wisconsin Public Radio Friday morning equated slavery to Nazi Germany and noted there are no statues of Adolf Hitler in Germany. (That is because they are illegal in Germany, which unlike this country has never had a Bill of Rights.) It seems to me that American slavery, bad as it was, lacked the widespread genocide that Nazi Germany accomplished, if that’s what you want to call it, over just 12 years in power. This country also ended slavery on its own, instead of having the Nazis forcibly removed from power by defeating Germany in World War II.
The final point is that calling someone racist does not automatically make them racist. Indiscriminate baseless accusations of racism are why Donald Trump is president.
We begin with two forlorn non-music anniversaries. Today in 1897, Oldsmobile began operation, eventually to become a division of General Motors Corp. … but not anymore.
Today in 1965, the Rolling Stones released the song that would become their first number one hit, and yet Mick Jagger still claimed …
Today in 1967, the New York Times reported on a method of reducing the noise recording devices make during recording. The inventor, Ray Dolby, had pioneered the process for studio recordings, but the Times story mentioned its potential for home use.
Ray Dolby, by the way, is no known relation to the other Dolby …
Today in 1987, Lindsey Buckingham refused to go out on tour with Fleetwood Mac for its “Tango in the Night” album, perhaps thinking that the road would make him …
The band probably told him …
… but look who came back a few years later:
How much money would you have paid for tickets for this concert at the Cow Palace in San Francisco today in 1964:
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 